Here Are The Reasons I Totally Despise Waste

I really cannot stand waste.  Maybe it is because my brother and I grew up in a modest home with a single mom and we learned early on to appreciate everything we had.  Perhaps it’s because we spent a great deal of time with our Grandparents, who survived the era of the Great Depression.  Whatever the reason, wasting food or anything else that could be useful to another person just seems foreign to me. 

Waste Not, Want Not

In our house, if we have food leftover from dinner, we do not waste it.  Consequently, the food is packed up and saved for another meal.  I have a strict one-week-rule for most items, and I stick to it.  After one week, the leftovers have to be thrown out, which seldom happens.

I love to have food left to take for lunch or as an easy dinner one night after a long or busy day.  We are all about the versatility of last night’s dinner!  We like to get creative.  Dice up chicken to add to a salad for lunch.  Leftover roast beef or turkey and gravy can be made into hot sandwiches.  Prepare extra mashed potatoes or vegetables when you are making a large dinner to make leftover night simple.  Easy Peasy.

Bonus:  Clean-up is a snap!

Wasting food was never an option for us growing up.  If we had leftovers, we ate them.  I never looked forward to eating a meal a second time that I wasn’t that crazy about the first time around, but I did it.  Food wasn’t something we wasted!  When bread became stale, we fed it to the birds.

At the dinner table growing up, I can recall my Grandfather, in an effort to get us to clean our plates, stating, “there are starving people in Ethiopia!”  Little did I know at the time, there are starving people here in the USA too, which is another great reason not to waste food.

As a result, my husband and I taught our boys this lesson.  We always gave them only the food on their plates that they could finish.  “You can always get more if you’re hungry, but you can’t get less.”  Food is expensive!

I always chuckle and cringe when I hear people say, “we don’t do leftovers.”  That’s fine for them, and I am certainly not judging those that toss food.  From a financial standpoint, that has never been an option for us.  It wasn’t the way either of us was raised.

Food for thought…

Waste Nothing, Cherish Everything

As Americans, we are very fortunate.  Recently, I read that we fall under the top 8% of the wealthiest in the world simply because we have a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. Most of us certainly don’t see ourselves that way.  We tend to compare ourselves to everyone else.  Sometimes, we even become depressed or disheartened when we can’t keep up.  We forget about how blessed we really are!  Not anymore!  My A-ha moment changed that attitude!

Some difficult growing pains for me have been learning that the simple things in life are the ones to appreciate the most.  So whether it is time, money, or food, or even talent, I try extremely hard not to waste any of it.

Just because I cherish the belongings that I am fortunate enough to have, and the things I have held onto since my childhood, I am not saying I save everything to avoid waste.  That would be insane and would undoubtedly turn me into a hoarder.  We purge at our house.  We donate articles we no longer use, recycle what we can, and we have yard sales to recoup some of the funds we spent.

I don’t know about you, but I saved some of my favorite games (Clue, Pay Day, Jax) from when I was a kid and still play them sometimes today.  Taking very good care of my stuff has made it last all these years.  I taught my children that lesson years ago.

Don’t Waste Water

Personally, I am grateful to have a nice home and the ability to provide for my family.  The fact that we all have fresh, clean, and safe drinking water, which we all take for granted, is something to be thankful for.  In our house, we try not to waste water.

What’s difficult, however, is the use of plastic bottles of water outside the home.  My family is guilty of taking them for lunch and to events.  Although we recycle at home, I struggle with the fact that they are not recycled at work.  Even when I fill my own bottle to take to work, I end up running out and drinking bottled water again.  It’s a wasteful habit that I am not proud of.

I invite you to check out https://www.charitywater.org/ and watch some of the videos about the deplorable drinking water conditions in other countries, and what is being done to correct it.

Appliance Repair

Remember the good old days, before we lived in a disposable society, and had everything repaired or serviced instead of buying new?  Major appliances are still serviceable today, but the life expectancy of those units is not what it used to be.

I can still picture the guys from Pyle’s (our local appliance store) coming over to our apartment to repair our television and refrigerator.  I remember watching them work, holding my breath and praying they could fix the problem.  For us, replacing the appliance or TV with something new wasn’t possible.  Most of the time, those guys would fix the problem, thank goodness.

Seriously, I bet your town had repair shops.  Whether it was large or small appliances, bicycles, shoes, garments, or whatever else, there was someone out there that could repair the broken item.  When did we toss that to the wind and begin buying cheap items that didn’t stand the test of time.

To this day, our toaster is a Sunbeam from the 1950’s.  It’s fantastic! It’s solid chrome, shiny, and heavy duty.  I love it!  This toaster works quickly and has a long cord.  The only downside is it doesn’t toast bagels; they are too big.  Our local coffee shop sells fresh bagels, so we usually stop by to get our fix instead of having bagels at home anyway.

I have an awesome console stereo system that I got for free, just to save it from the trash.  It worked great for a long time.  The record player still works!  Hopefully, I can find someone to repair the switch to make it completely functional again.

I love vintage and retro stuff!  Although I don’t have the slightest idea what I am doing, I enjoy tinkering with things that don’t work to try and fix them.  The thought of those items going to a landfill bothers me.  If nothing else, old objects are interesting conversation pieces when used as decor in the home.

Until Next Time,

April

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